Capita Resourcing Limited and its relationship with Social Security Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

"Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, I would be grateful if you would please provide me with the following information and for the avoidance of any doubt please treat each request separately:

• Please explain your relationship with Capita, for example, their role in conducting any of your processes and procedures.
• Please detail their role in carrying out any recruitment, for instance how their systems operate, what oversight they have, what discussions take place with Social Security Scotland (SSS), and what their scoring exercise for all applications look like. I appreciate this may also have been agreed with SSS, so please also provide me with any information relating to this.
• Please set out how many complaints either Capita and/or SSS have received regarding the recruitment process and how applicants personal information has been used.
• Please confirm your procedure for reviewing any complaints.
• Please advise when SSS last reviewed their recruitment processes, including its relationship with Capita.
• Please confirm how much SSS has paid to Capita for 2019-20,2020-21 and for the latest financial year up until present. I appreciate you might only be able to provide an estimate figure for the latest financial year.
• Please detail how many applications you have received for posts advertised, and a detailed breakdown of the number of unsuccessful and successful applications for each stage of the recruitment process.
• Please provide me with all feedback and/or complaints received in regarding to the recruitment process and handling of any complaints.
• Please detail, if any, discussions have taken place with Ministers or the Civil Service in respect to your recruitment and provide me with a copy of any minutes, and/or electronic communication, that has taken place.

If you believe you are exempt from providing any of the above information then please cite the specific exemption."

Response

Please find below the information requested. To help support the structure of the response I have written each question in bold with the answer below the question.

Please explain your relationship with Capita, for example, their role in conducting any of your processes and procedures.

Capita Resourcing Limited are the Scottish Government supplier for HR recruitment assessment services and are contracted to provide assistance to Scottish Government organisations through the recruitment process. Social Security Scotland follow Scottish Government recruitment policies and principles, including the use of Capita to support our recruitment activities.

Please detail their role in carrying out any recruitment, for instance how their systems operate, what oversight they have, what discussions take place with Social Security Scotland (SSS), and what their scoring exercise for all applications look like. I appreciate this may also have been agreed with SSS, so please also provide me with any information relating to this.

In line with Scottish Government recruitment policy and procedures, where required, Capita are instructed by Social Security Scotland to deliver specific assessment exercises derived from the Scottish Government core Skills for Success competency framework.

In the majority of Social Security Scotland’s recruitment campaigns Capita, as Scottish Government’s provider, administer and provide scoring for a range of recruitment assessment exercises which are aligned with the Scottish Government’s competency framework. The Capita scores are combined with interview panels, chaired by staff within Social Security Scotland who then give an overall score for each candidate against the Scottish Government Core Competencies.

Capita provide further targeted support with large volume recruitment campaigns administered by Social Security Scotland. In these campaigns Capita provide IT systems to support the running and administration of recruitment. In addition administrative services are provided to support the sifting, assessment and candidate interviews.

Pass marks for all elements of the recruitment process are set by Social Security Scotland. Where Capita are involved in assessment or scoring of candidates, Social Security Scotland staff either directly participate or undertake an audit review of applications scored by Capita to ensure consistency and fairness. This approach is approved by Civil Service Recruitment Commissioners.

Please set out how many complaints either Capita and/or SSS have received regarding the recruitment process and how applicants personal information has been used.

Since April 2021 Social Security Scotland have received over ten thousand applications with seventeen complaints regarding our recruitment process. Prior to April 2021 complaints were not centrally logged, therefore we do not hold summarised information prior to this date.

Applicants’ personal information is only used for the purposes of the recruitment exercise, including any follow up actions such as complaints. An explanation of how we process personal information can be found within our Privacy Statement, which can be found at Privacy Statement :: Social Security Scotland - Make a Difference. All applicants personal information is stored securely in line with GDPR principles, only people who are scoring applications or interviews have access to personal information provided by applicants.

Please confirm your procedure for reviewing any complaints.

Our complaints review process is, in summary:

• Initial complaint request is assigned to a Social Security Scotland Resourcing Manager.
• If required, clarification is sought from the sender either in writing or through a noted conversation.
• Once sufficient detail is obtained we aim to respond to each person within 10 working days.
• An answer is always given in writing and we will look to fully answer any questions raised.
• If the sender is not satisfied by the response, there is a mechanism to escalate the complaint to the senior resourcing manager or alternatively the Civil Service Commission.

Please advise when SSS last reviewed their recruitment processes, including its relationship with Capita.

Social Security Scotland recruitment processes were reviewed in early 2021 to support the delivery of large recruitment campaigns across our organisation. As part of this review we considered Capita’s service offering in their role as the Scottish Government’s provider of HR and recruitment assessment services.

Please confirm how much SSS has paid to Capita for 2019-20,2020-21 and for the latest financial year up until present. I appreciate you might only be able to provide an estimate figure for the latest financial year.

Social Security Scotland expenditure for Capita, by financial year is:

• 2019/2020 - £64,951.43
• 2020/2021 - £128,883.51
• 2021/2022 (as at 30 November 2021) - £851,089.24

Please detail how many applications you have received for posts advertised, and a detailed breakdown of the number of unsuccessful and successful applications for each stage of the recruitment process.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. To conduct a search for all applications received for the 1,495 posts advertised since 1 September 2018 would exceed the upper cost limit. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

Please provide me with all feedback and/or complaints received in regarding to the recruitment process and handling of any complaints.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the information requested because an exemption under Section 38(1)(b) (personal data) of the Act applies. Feedback and/or complaints made by applicants constitutes personal information.

Please detail, if any, discussions have taken place with Ministers or the Civil Service in respect to your recruitment and provide me with a copy of any minutes, and/or electronic communication, that has taken place.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. To conduct a search for all correspondence with Ministers or the Civil Services relating to recruitment would exceed the upper cost limit. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.